Tender & Estimating Software for Concreters
My Trade Hub is estimating and tendering software for concreting contractors that automates the quantity takeoff and pricing from your plans — slab and footing volumes, formwork, reinforcement and driveway or path area — so you can turn a set of drawings into a client-ready quote or tender in minutes rather than hours. It is built for Australian residential and commercial concreting work, and every measured item stays editable so you keep full control of your rates and margin.
Key takeaways
- My Trade Hub automates the concrete takeoff from your plans — slab and footing volumes, formwork, reinforcement, and driveway or path area — so nothing gets missed or double-counted.
- Automated takeoff is 60-75% faster than manual estimation, so you can quote more jobs without adding admin time.
- Every measured quantity stays editable, so you apply your own rates and margin and keep full control of the final price.
- Residential slabs, driveways and paths are usually quoted directly; larger commercial and structural concrete packages are won by formal tender, often against a structural engineer’s drawings.
- The same measured quantities that build your quote carry through to variations and progress claims once the job is under way.
Why concrete estimating takes so long
Concrete estimating takes so long because a single set of structural and site plans can hide dozens of separate pours, each with its own volume, formwork and reinforcement requirement that has to be calculated before a rate can be applied.
Unlike a trade with a single obvious quantity, concrete work spans footings, slabs, driveways, paths and kerbing — each measured differently, in cubic metres of concrete, square metres of formwork or finish, and tonnes or square metres of reinforcement — and calculating volumes from a drawing set by hand means working out depths and thicknesses that are not always drawn as a single dimension.
For most concreting contractors, that means estimating gets rushed between jobs on site, which is exactly when a slab thickness gets misread or a section of reinforcement gets left off the quantity.
What’s in a concrete takeoff
A concrete takeoff is the measured volume and area of every pour shown on the plans, broken down so each can be priced with materials and labour. A complete takeoff typically covers:
- Footings — strip, pad and pier footings, measured in cubic metres from the engineer’s footing schedule.
- Slabs — slab on ground or suspended slabs, measured in cubic metres by thickness and grade.
- Formwork — edge and perimeter formwork, measured in lineal or square metres.
- Reinforcement — mesh, trench mesh and reinforcing bar, measured in square metres or tonnes.
- Driveways, paths and kerbing — measured in square or lineal metres, including the finish (plain, broom, exposed aggregate or coloured).
How My Trade Hub takes off concrete work from your plans
My Trade Hub’s estimation engine reads your structural and site plans and performs the measured takeoff automatically — calculating slab and footing volumes, formwork and reinforcement quantities, and driveway or path area — instead of you working out depths and areas from the drawings by hand.
Because the takeoff is automated rather than manual, it is 60-75% faster than estimating the same job by hand, so you can turn a set of plans into priced quantities the same day you receive them rather than setting aside a weekend.
The output is a structured, itemised list of concrete quantities — not a black-box total — so you can review every volume and area against the plans before it goes anywhere near a client.
Pricing concrete work: rates, labour and margin
Once the quantities are measured, pricing a concrete job means applying a materials rate and a labour rate to every pour, formwork run and reinforcement item, then adding overheads and margin on top — the takeoff only gets you halfway to a number you can stand behind.
Labour is usually the larger cost on concrete work, and it varies with access for the truck and pump, ground conditions and excavation, and the finish specified — a plain broom finish costs far less to lay than an exposed aggregate or stencilled driveway — so your rates need to reflect the real conditions on site, not a generic average.
On top of materials and labour, add your overheads and margin, and factor in a reasonable allowance for site access, pump hire and any make-good to other trades’ work.
| Item | Description | Unit | Qty | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Supply & place concrete, 25 MPa slab | m³ | 38 | $295.00 | $11,210 |
| 2 | Formwork to slab edge | m | 85 | $32.00 | $2,720 |
| 3 | SL72 mesh reinforcement | m² | 210 | $12.50 | $2,625 |
| 4 | Exposed aggregate driveway finish | m² | 65 | $95.00 | $6,175 |
From estimate to a professional quote or tender
With the concrete quantities measured and priced, the next step is turning that pricing into a document a client or head contractor can actually act on — a clear, professional quote for direct residential work, or a complete tender submission for a larger structural package.
My Trade Hub turns the priced takeoff straight into a client-ready quote or tender, with your branding and terms attached, so you are not re-keying the same numbers into a separate spreadsheet or Word document.
Because the slow part — the takeoff — is already done, producing the quote itself takes minutes, which means you can turn quotes around the same day a plan lands in your inbox.
Quoting vs tendering for concrete work
Most concreting contractors move between two very different pricing situations, and knowing which one you are in changes how you should price the job.
A straightforward quote — a driveway, a shed slab, a set of paths — is usually priced directly for the homeowner or builder as a fixed price with a short list of inclusions and exclusions. A commercial or structural tender is more formal: you are usually pricing against a structural engineer’s drawings and specification, sometimes with a Bill of Quantities, alongside other concreting subcontractors.
The estimating principle is the same in both cases — measure the scope accurately, then price it — but a tender demands more supporting documentation and a tighter, more competitive rate, since you are one of several contractors bidding the identical scope.
Common mistakes in concrete estimating
Most concrete under-quotes come down to a short list of recurring mistakes, all of which are avoidable with a consistent takeoff process.
- Misreading slab or footing thickness from a section drawing, which throws off the whole volume calculation.
- Under-pricing reinforcement, which is easy to underestimate when mesh laps and trench mesh are not clearly called up on the plan.
- Forgetting formwork to steps, edges and penetrations that are not shown as an obvious perimeter line.
- Not allowing for site access, pump hire or difficult ground conditions, which can add significant cost beyond the concrete itself.
- Pricing from an outdated drawing revision, so the quote no longer matches the actual slab or footing design.
Who prepares concrete estimates
On most residential and small commercial jobs, the concreter who will do the work also prices it — reading the plans, calculating volumes and building the quote themselves, since a separate estimator is rarely justified for a job of that size.
On larger commercial and structural projects, a dedicated estimator inside the concreting business usually prepares the tender, often working from a builder’s program and a structural engineer’s design rather than site knowledge alone.
Either way, the same bottleneck applies: someone has to manually calculate volumes and areas off a drawing before a single rate can be applied, which is exactly the step My Trade Hub automates.
How My Trade Hub helps concreters win more work
My Trade Hub automates the measured takeoff for concrete work directly from your plans — slab and footing volumes, formwork, reinforcement and driveway or path area — so the slow, error-prone part of estimating happens in minutes instead of hours.
Every measured item stays fully editable, so you apply your own rates and margin and keep complete control of the final price before it goes to a client. Because the takeoff is 60-75% faster than doing it by hand, you can quote and tender for more concrete work without adding estimating overhead — and the same measured quantities carry through to variations and progress claims once the job starts.
Frequently asked questions
what’s the best estimating software for concreters?
The best estimating software for concreters automates the quantity takeoff from your plans — slab and footing volumes, formwork, reinforcement and driveway or path area — and lets you apply your own rates rather than relying on generic pricing. My Trade Hub performs that takeoff automatically and produces a client-ready quote or tender, while keeping every rate and quantity editable so you stay in control of the final price.
how do concreters price a job?
Concreters price a job by measuring the volume of every pour and the area of formwork and reinforcement, pricing materials and labour against each item, then adding overheads, site access costs and margin. Automating the takeoff from the plans removes the missed quantities that are the most common cause of under-pricing.
how long does it take to quote a concrete job?
A manual concrete takeoff and quote can take anywhere from an hour for a small driveway to a full day or more for a larger slab or structural package, depending on how many pours, formwork runs and reinforcement items need to be calculated by hand. Automating the takeoff cuts that time by 60-75%, so a job that used to take a day can be quoted the same afternoon.
what should be included in a concrete quote?
A complete concrete quote should list the scope of work (footings, slab, formwork, reinforcement, finish), the price, what is included and excluded, any allowance for site access or difficult ground conditions, and the validity period of the price.
do concreters need to tender for commercial work?
Larger commercial and structural concrete packages are usually won by formal tender rather than a simple quote, particularly where a builder or head contractor is comparing several concreting subcontractors against the same structural engineer’s drawings. Residential slabs, driveways and paths are typically priced as a direct quote.
how do you calculate concrete volume from plans?
Concrete volume is calculated by multiplying the measured area of a slab or footing by its specified thickness or depth, then converting to cubic metres and adding an allowance for wastage and over-excavation. Doing this by hand from a drawing is slow and error-prone; My Trade Hub calculates these volumes automatically as part of the takeoff.
Ready to win more work?
Turn your plans into professional tenders 60–75% faster with My Trade Hub. Plans built around your tendering volume — no lock-in contracts.
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